Although the newsletter is entirely open access in its present format, editions from prior to 2012 were published when authors were guaranteed anonymity beyond DSN membership. As a result, we cannot publish our entire back-catalogue online. However, if you are a confirmed member of DSN, you may request e-copies free of charge from Newsletter 106 onward.

DSN article guidance

This is the guidance sheet for articles for The Doctors’ Support, the newsletter of the DSN and the website. This is not comprehensive and merely provides basic details on the scope and style used.

Article Scope

We accept any mental health interest articles, however tenuous! This can include general health and wellbeing articles, tips for staying well, and other general interest pieces. We are as interested in articles about jam making and instrument playing as we are in updates in mental health news! We guarantee to accept articles written by members of the DSN community, (unless deemed obscene or libellous); as a community interest newsletter, we aim to facilitate the sharing of information between members.

We accept that articles may not be grammatically perfect at submission; the in-house team are responsible for ensuring the final copy meets the house style and standards.

Please note that we cannot always guarantee when articles will be published, so please try to be patient. By submitting, authors are passing copyright to the DSN. Where authors wish to remain anonymous, this must be indicated at submission. No personally identifiable information is necessary for publication.

Editorial Process

The editor reviews articles in the first instance. Articles are allocated to publication based on current issue themes and prioritisation. We prioritise DSN news articles, DSN member articles, and articles with a direct mental health resonance, in that order. Any articles submitted will be subject to amendment to meet our house style. Editorial suggestions will be notified to the author prior to publication, if possible.

Style Guide

Although written primarily for doctors, The Doctors’ Support is intended to be light reading, and should be written journalistically rather than academically.

The following is designed to facilitate this, and is based on industry standard guidance. DSN will apply the following rules:

Language: British English in all instances

Titles are at the top with the author’s name. If anonymity is requested, a “pen name” or “Anon” will be used.

Shorter sentences and paragraphs are preferred

We prefer a maximum length of 500 words for an article but are able to consider other variations!

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DisclaimerAll opinions expressed on this website are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of DSN. DSN cannot accept responsibility for any actions taken as a result of content of the website. Links to other organisations are provided for information only and are not a recommendation. In particular, you may want to check about confidentiality when contacting other organisations.